It is the Dolgan tribes that have historically had the most success adding the prodigious strength of the Chaos Mammoths to that of their tribes through the jealously guarded secrets of their shaman.

To tribes which through fortune, sorcery, or the favour of the gods come to bring one of these creatures into the fold (for none can ever be truly tamed), great honour and fear is attached. The barbaric tribes seek out calves abandoned by their mothers, for if caught and trained early enough, a Chaos War Mammoth can be ridden into battle as a nigh-unstoppable shock weapon. Luckily, most Chaos War Mammoths encountered away from the frozen north are rogues - warped individuals that disdain even their own herds. The damage a whole herd of such beasts can do is nothing short of cataclysmic, wiping out entire tribes in an instant. The northern tribes know that a single War Mammoth can suddenly charge out of a blizzard and level a village in mere moments. From the shores of the Sea of Claws to the cold wastes of K'dathi, they are venerated by Norscans and Hung alike. To the Chaos-touched tribes of the Northern Wastes, the Mammoths are living totems of might and power - beasts who go where they will and destroy what they will, and are so considered sacred creatures in their own right. This is magnified a thousand-fold by the fact that when they have young they travel in communal family herds and that they are fiercely territorial. Although not actually evil as such, they are entirely belligerent and uncaring beasts that cut a swathe of destruction wherever they go. These massive creatures are capable, through sheer bulk and roused fury, of demolishing buildings, trampling forests flat and crushing anything smaller than themselves (which is just about anything alive) into an unrecognisable, bloody smear. Yet, growing steadily louder, the booming thud of the beast's approach causes the ground to tremble in rhythm to the four-legged strides until, at last, the gargantuan creature towers above. The approach of a War Mammoth begins as a distant rumbling, like thunder over the horizon. They respond to any other creature that manages to gather their notice by smashing it into the ground, or if it is a large enough monster in its own right, impaling it with huge tusks the size of mighty tree trunks.

They sound out trumpeting blasts before stamping the enemy flat, leaving behind only stains in the churned snow. War Mammoths tolerate nothing in their presence and will attack anything they can see. Over the years the mutating effects have worked on the herd animals, causing them to sprout extra horns, and turning them violently aggressive. A beast of such size consumes vast amounts of food and over time has ingested great quantities of Chaos tainted material. War Mammoths travel the snow-covered steppes of the farthest north, sweeping their tusks to expose the twisted grasses and small creatures that live beneath.

Total war warhammer norsca freezing